Run Boy Run
by NonAnalogue
Summary: His village vanished before his eyes in a beam of light from the heavens. Now Robin and his partner, Starlight, need to find out how to bring everyone back before even more people disappear. But the disciples of the very gods themselves stand in his way - and Robin will need to harness the power of divinity to fix everything.
1. Goner

He could scarcely believe his eyes.

A beam of light, cascading down from the heavens, impossibly big.

His home, his town, his family, his friends – all bathed in the blinding radiance.

Then… just as quickly as it had appeared, the light was gone.

And the light took with it… everything.

He dropped down from the tree he'd been climbing, bark clinging to his palms. His legs shook, barely able to support him.

A stone creature, round with cracks in its shell and light-colored protrusions jutting out, floated at his side, similarly stunned into silence.

He started walking, slowly at first. He remembered every cobblestone, every lamp, every shop that made up the streets of Penth. The grocery was supposed to be at the corner, the inn next to it. The blacksmith would normally have her forge going by this time of day, the smell of the smoke weaving through the crowds.

He began to run.

The Pokemon breeder was supposed to be _there_, the confectioner _there_…

He left what should have been the market district. A right on what was once named Orrery Lane. Ester's home, gone; Malik's home, gone; Arcana's home, gone…

He stopped in his tracks.

He knew it was coming, but one small part of him had been holding out hope.

His home.

His mother.

The garden where he and Starlight first met, when she crashed down from the night sky.

The kitchen where he'd first tried Berende sprouts and promptly spat them out.

The fireplace in front of which he'd huddled up in a blanket to stave off the bitter winter cold.

The thatched roof that he and Starlight had accidentally punched through trying to see how high she could carry him.

They were all gone.

He fell to his knees, among the grass and flowers that had replaced everything he had ever known. A gentle pressure on his shoulder told him that Starlight was trying to comfort him as best as she could.

He couldn't even cry. The tears wouldn't come. The… _enormity_ of what was facing him… it couldn't sink in. Surely his mother was still out there somewhere, right? He must have just gotten lost on the way home, and only thought he saw his town disappear. That must be it—

"Robin." A hand on his shoulder.

He looked up, his dirt-streaked bangs hanging limply over wide, dark eyes. "Arcana-?" It _was_ her. Then, since she was still here, maybe, maybe everyone else was hiding somewhere nearby—

The hand cupped under his arm and pulled him to his feet. Though she was a few years older than him, Arcana and Robin stood eye-to-eye with each other; while he wore a simple tunic with pants tucked into his boots, she dressed with more of a flourish – a green coat that waved in the wind, black gloves that she liked to adjust dramatically at opportune moments. She fixed Robin with a piercing, amber-eyed stare. "So you're here too," she said in a low voice. "We need to get out of here."

"What? Why?!" Robin said, his voice wavering. "Everyone else has to still be around here somewhere! We gotta find them! We… we have to…" He could feel the tears welling up, now – and there they came, spilling from his eyes down his cheeks and dropping onto the flowers underneath him. "I don't, don't want Mom to be…"

"Gone." Arcana shook her head and turned her gaze away from him. Her voice was as level as it always was, but Robin could see her shoulders shaking. "Everyone's gone. It's just you, me, Starlight, and Opal." At that last name, an azure blue sea lion with a pale fringe around her neck – a Popplio – clambered onto her shoulder, eyes watery. "And we need to get gone before whatever zapped the town decides to blast us to kingdom come too."

"How can you be so, so _calm_?!" Robin took a step towards her, his hands balling into fists. "There's nothing left!" His jaw was clenched tight, and he could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest.

Arcana turned her head back towards him, her eyes glittering in the afternoon sun. "I'm calm because someone has to be. Time like this, someone's got to keep her head on her shoulders. And we're in danger here. There'll be time for mourning later. So let's go."

Starlight nudged Robin's arm. "I don't want to go," she said in a quiet voice that echoed inside her shell. She and Robin had been partners, a Minior and a human, long enough that they could understand each other nearly perfectly. "But… I think Arky is right."

"She's calling me Arky again, isn't she," Arcana said, her expression flat.

"If something happens to us," Starlight continued, "then there won't be any hope left. It's only us. Nobody else knows what happened."

Robin grit his teeth and wiped his sleeve across his eyes, leaving damp trails. "You're… you're right." He looked at the flowerbed where his home had been only earlier that day. "I'm coming back though, you hear me? I'm not gonna just… leave everyone like this!"

"Less platitudes, more hoofing it," Arcana said, grabbing Robin by the hand and running in the direction of the forest. "There's a sanctum not far outside of town. We can at least be out of the open there." She slowed to a stop, though, when Opal tugged at her jacket's collar and muttered something into her ear. Arcana turned around to look – across the field, examining the flowers, was a woman, tall and elegant, wearing a simple white dress. Everything about her screamed slender, from her arms to her face. She plucked a flower from the earth and held it to her nose, breathing in deeply.

"Who's that?" Robin whispered. "Is she the one who…?"

"Shh!" Arcana held a finger up to her lips and crouched, concealing herself in a patch of tall grass. After a moment, she pulled Robin, who clearly had not gotten the hint, down too.

The woman tossed the flower over her shoulder and cocked her head upwards, as if listening to something. Then she turned and stared at the tall grass.

"Don't move," Arcana hissed through clenched teeth. Robin stayed frozen in place as the woman took slow deliberate steps in their direction…

…and then turned away, evidently satisfied that there was nothing there.

Robin let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding. "That was close," he whispered, but before he could get back up, a yank on his collar did that for him. A Marowak, its skull scarred and cracked, hauled him to his feet, smacking him in the gut with its bone when he didn't move quickly enough.

"Ah," said the woman without turning around. "I knew there were some stragglers here and there." Her voice was faint and airy, like wisps of smoke drifting out of her mouth. "Good job, Sorrow... bring them here."

The Marowak prodded Robin with its bone a few times, and he stepped from the grass. Arcana followed him, her face awash with calculation. "You're the one who did this," Robin growled, trying to stop the tears from coming again. "Fix it! Bring everyone back!"

The woman put her hand to her mouth, letting out a slight laugh. "Oh dear… you don't know what's going on at all, do you? This wasn't my doing, child."

"Child?" Robin narrowed his eyes. "I'm 15!"

"Not the time, Robin," Arcana hissed.

"The person behind this act," the woman continued as if Robin hadn't interrupted her at all, "has long since departed this place. Well before anyone had any hope of stopping him, in fact. I'm just here to ensure that anyone left over is… taken care of." She stretched out one graceful arm. "To that end, Sorrow… you may begin."

Robin backed up a few paces as Starlight drifted in front of him. "Are you sure?" he whispered to his companion.

"No," Starlight said simply, "but I'm doing it anyway."

Arcana muttered something to Opal at the same time, and the Popplio jumped down from her shoulder to likewise stand in between her partner and the threat. "I think you'll find," Arcana said, adjusting her gloves as her coat waved in the breeze, "that we're not so easily dispatched."

Sorrow leapt at them, hurling its bone through the air before slamming its fist, crackling with electricity, into Starlight. The bone slammed into Opal on its way past her, then once again on its way back, leaving her dizzied and stumbling. In one attack on each of them, Sorrow had left them much worse for the wear.

"Starlight!" Robin cried as cracks splintered across the Minior's shell. She swiveled around to glance at him, and he _knew_ that she was winking at him, even if he couldn't see her face.

He knew what she was going to do.

Robin and Starlight had known each other for five years. Neither of them were especially enthused at the idea of fighting, but they'd still practice here and there, if only for the purposes of self-defense. Starlight was the only Minior many people in Penth had ever seen, and rumors abounded – Minior were spirits of the stars, Minior were sent from the heavens, Minior couldn't survive for too long if their shell cracked open. Robin had been concerned about that last one, and even though Starlight wasn't convinced it was a real problem, they trained for it regardless. Finally, they had it – a way to turn Starlight's shell breaking to their advantage.

"Starlight," Robin called, "SHIELDS DOWN!"

The cracks spidered across Starlight's surface faster, until they all paused at once, for just a moment. The shell exploded outwards, pelting Sorrow with sharp fragments of rock and only narrowly avoiding Opal. Sorrow stumbled back as Starlight revealed her core – a black sphere with white nubs, with wide spiraling eyes and a small smile.

"Hey, watch it," Arcana said with a scowl. "You almost got us with that. Opal, you know what to do." Opal padded forward and spat a stream of water from her mouth, one that slammed into Sorrow's helmet.

Sorrow shook off the water and debris, letting out a growl. It didn't need any more instruction from its partner – it began lashing out wildly, landing blows with its bone and its fists alike. Without her shell, Starlight was easily thrown by just a single strike – and Opal followed soon after.

The woman laughed again, a haughty, pretentious noise that burned like fire in Robin's mind. "Oh, you actually thought you stood a chance… the looks on your faces! Such wonderful despair…"

Robin screwed his eyes shut, unable to keep watching. The Marowak's growl echoed in his ears, and he tried to drown it out with his own internal voice. _Please, if there's anyone out there,_ he thought, _help us! Help me! She's… we can't stop her!_

Sorrow quieted – in fact, everything did. A pinprick of warmth gleamed in his heart, then spread through his veins, calming his nerves. "Um, Robin?" he heard Arcana say, but faintly, muffled.

He opened his eyes.

The woman had backed away, her eyes wide and her pupils shrunk, with an incredulous smile on her face. "Incredible… that's why you survived the erasure…"

Robin looked down at his hands. They had turned from his normal light brown to the color of midnight, with claws like daggers, and in one was a bent wooden club that looked like it would pack a punch. A light yellow, almost white, cloak had appeared around his shoulders, with a hood to cover his head.

Even Sorrow took a step back.

"So you can call upon Divine Favors too…" the woman said, her voice somewhere between laughing and crying. "That makes things more… complicated. Sorrow, let's fall back for now. This wasn't in the plan." Before Robin or Arcana could move, she and Sorrow both took off running, disappearing into the forest.

"What… happened, Robin?" Arcana asked. It wasn't often that Robin heard uncertainty underpinning her words, and even less often that he caught her looking confused.

Robin turned his attention back to his hands. They… didn't look like his, but when he wiggled his fingers, the claws wiggled just as they should have; when he moved his arm, the arm formed from inky darkness moved the same way. "I, um, I dunno. I was trying to block out the sound of the Marowak, and then… this happened."

A rustling in the grass drew his gaze to Starlight, who was reforming her core from the shattered rock. "I think it suits you, Binny," she said, flashing him a smile before that section of her face got covered up. "You look like a Mimikyu."

"A Mimikyu?" Robin said, furrowing his brow.

Arcana snapped. "That's it, a Mimikyu!" She drew a pencil and a small stack of papers loosely bound together from one of her pockets and began sketching hurriedly. When she finished, she turned her paper around: it was a rough drawing of Robin, his face obscured completely in shadow except for his eyes, wearing a cloak that covered him all the way to his feet, with two ears and two red spots on the hood.

And then… the cloak dissolved into nothingness, and Robin turned back to normal.

"Aww," Starlight said, her core reconstructed. "I liked it, too."

Robin could only keep staring at his hands, baffled. "What's… going on?" he muttered.

"I might be able to tell you." The voice belonged to the wizened man who'd approached them without their noticing; he balanced on a cane and his steps were slow, deliberate, and, crucially, quiet. "Please, why don't you come with me? I'm the healer at the sanctum near here. I rather think the four of you could use a rest, hm? I've got a stew going, and I can hopefully enlighten you a little over some dinner."

Robin glanced at Arcana, who shrugged, as much at a loss as he was. "It's where I wanted to head anyway," she said.

"Okay," Robin answered. Before taking off, he looked over the empty field, his home, one last time.

He would come back.

He would fix everything.

He had to.


	2. Myths and Legends

The path was well-worn, a winding trail through the autumnal trees. Robin and Starlight trailed the healer by a step, matching his pace, while Arcana, with Opal on her shoulder, strode ahead, letting out annoyed sighs whenever she had to wait for them to catch up. The forest was full of Pokemon, Robin noticed, much more so than normal; Pidgey and Butterfree watching them from the trees, Rattata and Bellsprout peeking out at them from behind trunks that dwarfed them.

"I'm pleased to see you survived," the healer said with a creaking, slow cadence. "You always were an interesting one, Robin."

"Huh?" Robin, who'd been eyeing a Treecko that'd been glaring daggers at him, snapped back to attention. "Do we… know each other?"

The healer let out a wheezy laugh. "I'm not surprised you don't know me. Men of my age… we tend to melt into the background a little, hm? I came down to the market every week, and I always saw you, Dulcie, and of course Starlight getting your groceries. Oh, I did love the way you and Starlight played together," he added with a nostalgic smile. "That game where you'd toss an apple at her and see how many times she could bounce it before dropping it? Such fun."

Robin felt his face turning red. He hadn't realized anyone was watching them when they did that. "We called it Fruit Bump," he said in a small voice. He could picture it in his head so vividly – the fruit vendor, the way her hair waved in the breeze, her stall chock full of colorful fruit from all over, his mom palming an apple and passing it down to him…

He felt a nudge at his shoulder, and suddenly he was seeing out of his own eyes again. "Are you okay, Binny?" Starlight whispered.

Robin rubbed the back of his head and jogged a few steps to catch back up with the healer. "Um, yeah. Sorry," he muttered back. "I just got… lost in my head again, I guess."

Starlight giggled, an airy noise that, after echoing in her shell, always reminded Robin of wind chimes. "Not always a bad place to be lost."

Golden leaves crunched beneath his boots. Robin let the sound wash over him as he walked, tuning out Arcana demanding information from the healer, who only waved off her questions and told her to have patience. Patience wasn't something Arcana was good at and it never had been, not that he was any better. Still, Arcana always seemed to be anxious for something to happen… no, not anxious, he thought; that sounded like she was nervous. Arcana couldn't ever cool her heels – she couldn't abide waiting.

Before he knew it, they'd reached the sanctum, a simple stone structure resting in a glade. It bore sconces on either side of a plain wooden door, the light from its torches pushing back against the dusk. Smoke billowed out of a chimney, carrying with it the faint aroma of something savory.

"Please," the healer said, "come in. My dear Peach is tending to dinner."

Peach was, as Robin found out, a Hatterene, one just as elderly as the healer. Her colors had faded and there were lines drawn across her face, and she was slowly stirring a cauldron of thick stew, the ladle held aloft with a psychic grip. Starlight floated around the pot, basking in the steam rising from it; she spun on her axis and the steam spun around her, prompting a giggle from Peach.

The healer, with deceptive swiftness, slung two wooden bowls at Peach, who froze them in the air without any visible trouble and siphoned stew into both of them. The bowls flew through the curtain of steam and arrived in Robin's and Arcana's hands, nary a drop spilled. Robin tucked into his without hesitation.

"Okay, we've got the stew," Arcana said, setting her bowl aside for Opal to slurp at. "So now can you tell us what in the world is going on?"

The healer let out a breath, slowly lowering himself into a chair that looked even more ancient than he did. "One of these days, child, your hastiness will be the end of you, mark my words." He held out a hand just as Peach levitated a steaming cup of tea in his direction in a well-practiced ritual. "Now, where to start…"

"How about with the part where Penth just got vaporized into nothingness? Or, failing that, the part where Robin got a Mimikyu costume out of thin air?"

"Child," the healer said, "My name may be Sabri the Patient, but even I have my limits. The events that transpired today have their roots in myth and legend, and I dare not get this wrong. This is portentous stuff, you know. Make sure you take it all in." He aimed a look at Robin, who was in the middle of a long, noisy slurp from his spoon. "That goes for you too."

Sabri cleared his throat. "This legend begins at the creation of the world—"

"Oh no," Arcana groaned, "any story that starts that far back isn't going to be a quick one."

"Child, did you or did you not want to find out what happened? Learning about it without context isn't going to help. Now hush. So. The creation of the world. You know, of course, about the pantheon of twenty deities that created all of Ennen."

Both Robin and Arcana nodded. Robin's mother had never been especially concerned with matters of religion, but even she would offer a prayer to Takren of the Enumeration when gold was short.

"When Ennen was woven into existence, each deity contributed something different. Mihtas of the Nourishment created the sky, the seas, and the land, so that the creatures that were to be made would have homes. Ithria of the Surprise breathed weather into being, to help cycle air and water around the world, though she claimed she only did it on a whim. And Sunthe of the Genesis… she molded the first people – Pokemon and humans alike – so that Tzarth of the Breath could give them life."

Arcana raised a finger. "You did see that we nodded when you asked us if we knew about them, right?"

"Peach, if she interrupts me again, cover her mouth, please. I swear. You have no appreciation for storytelling, child. Where was I? Ah yes. Tzarth. Now, Tzarth is a cynical sort. It comes with giving all creatures the gift of life, but then taking it away from them when they die. Back then, she was more idealistic, but she was nonetheless worried that, eventually, humanity, who she didn't quite like the look of, would seek to subjugate Pokemon, her favored mortals.

"So she conferred with Sunthe, and the two of them came up with a plan. If it ever became the case that humanity overreached in a way that posed a threat to Pokemon, a union of the two would arise – a duo of one human and one Pokemon. Together, they would erase humanity using powers granted to them by the deities – powers that would allow the human the strength of a Pokemon."

"Erase…" The word slipped out of Robin's mouth unconsciously. It perfectly described what he had seen happen: the beam of light that seemed to come from the deities themselves, the way it wiped Penth away as cleanly as if it had never existed at all, taking everyone they'd ever known with it…

Arcana frowned, her face crinkling with thought. "Powers granted by the deities… Are you saying the Mimikyu thing was some kind of gift from the gods or something?"

"I think it's very possible, yes," Sabri said.

"…from the gods?" echoed Robin. He didn't feel any different than he used to – certainly not like he'd been granted a divine boon or anything like that. He wished he could will his brain to process everything faster, but it was all he could do to barely keep up.

"So, wait," Arcana continued after a moment's thought. "You said that there'd be one human and one Pokemon who were granted power, and that they'd do the erasing. That can't be Robin, then. He didn't erase anything!" She grinned, like she'd found a fatal flaw in Sabri's story. "Therefore, that story can't be true!"

Sabri rolled his eyes and glanced to Robin. "Tell me, is your friend always like this?" Robin nodded, trying to ignore the glare Arcana was shooting at him. "It's a legend, child," Sabri continued. "Some of the details may not be one-hundred-percent correct – but what happened to Penth is inarguable, wouldn't you say? I worry it's just the beginning. If it's true that the human and the Pokemon have already begun their crusade, then it's a matter of _when_ they find their next target, not _if_. More and more will be erased until…"

"Until there aren't any humans left," Robin whispered.

Opal jumped into Arcana's lap, circling a few times before curling up in a ball. Arcana scratched behind Opal's ears and put her other hand to her chin. "But that's all just a legend. That can't be what's actually happening, right?" she asked. "I mean, surely if all of humanity were about to be wiped from the map, someone would be doing something about it."

"Someone would be…" Sabri's jaw hung open. "Child, do I not count as 'someone'? I am _trying_ to 'do something about it'! The three of us are the only ones who witnessed what happened, and I want to make certain that both of you have the information you need to try and prevent this from happening again!" His cheeks had turned red, and the wrinkles that lined his face had only deepened. "I'd go solve everything myself, but, in case you haven't noticed, I'm very elderly and don't get around very fast!"

"That's not right," said Robin. Starlight had settled in his lap and he was passing his hands over her shell, the rough texture keeping him tethered to the ground. He had the vague fear that if he dwelled too long on any one thing – on his mother, on his home, on the woman in white, on the legend – he'd drift away into the sky and never be able to come back down. He closed his eyes, keenly aware that both Sabri and Arcana were staring at him. "It wasn't just the three of us. Who saw it, I mean."

Sabri's eyebrows jumped up. "There was another? Who?"

"The… woman." Robin shuffled his feet uncomfortably, knowing that the answer wasn't helpful. "The one with the Marowak."

"Ugh, her. She was a piece of work," Arcana groaned. "She completely wiped the floor with us, then ran off when the Mimikyu thing happened. You didn't see her?"

"Child." Sabri let a slow breath out through his nose. "I saw the beam of light from the heavens here, from the sanctum. I went to go investigate, but it took me some time to get there. The only people I saw were the two of you and your Pokemon."

"Well, whatever. She said that the guy responsible was long gone, anyway. 'Such wonderful despair,'" Arcana said in a nasal twang. "What a tool. If I never see her again, it'll be too soon."

"But…" The words came out of Robin's mouth more slowly than he liked. It felt like Arcana and Sabri were running circles around him. "That means she knows who was responsible, right? She was saying that she was just in charge of cleaning up… so doesn't that mean that if we find her, we can find out who the guy is who actually did this?"

Seeing the look on Arcana's face, Sabri shook his head. "That may be true, but perhaps we ought to continue this conversation in the morning, when we've all had a chance to get some rest and cool our heads. The sun has set; it's getting late. Please, feel free to spend the night."

* * *

Robin couldn't tell how long it took him to fall asleep, tossing and turning on what could have loosely been defined as a mattress. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the burning pillar of light, seared into his mind, incinerating away each memory he had of home.

The old well in the center of town? Gone.

The museum where old man Flint showed off all his gemstones? Vanished.

The alley off Twostone Lane where he and Starlight could hide when things got overwhelming? Erased.

It was all gone.

With tears in his eyes, Robin fell into a fitful sleep.

And while he slept, he dreamed.

He stood at the corner of Orrery Lane and Forgefire Walk. His hand was in his mother's, Dulcie's, course and calloused and comforting. It was market day, and the streets were packed with buyers and sellers alike milling to and fro. She held a finger to her lips and slid her hand into a passerby's satchel, neatly snagging a pair of gold coins without them even noticing. There was her radiant smile, the one that made Robin feel like no matter what happened, she would keep him safe. She gestured at another traveler, and Robin swiped a vial of healing potion from their belt…

…and they turned around, their eyes alighting upon Robin, the potion in his palm.

With a whooping laugh, Dulcie pulled Robin away and flew down the road, ducking under trees, over bushes, and down alleys. With the streets as packed as they were, the unfortunate pickpocketee had no chance of catching up.

It hadn't been easy since his father had died.

But his mother was making ends meet, and she was teaching him how to as well.

Robin squinted. There was something different, though. He remembered how this went. Nobody had found them, after they'd hid behind the abandoned tannery. They'd used the gold that Dulcie had found to buy dinner that day. Then they'd gone home, to the cottage that let in every chill and leaked in the rain, but they'd been together and that made everything all right.

But this time…

There was a figure approaching them, behind the tannery. Dulcie didn't seem to notice. They were cloaked in shadow, and also a cloak, which wasn't helping matters. Their hand, the color of the night sky, reached out to him, and he reached back, unable to stop himself.

A gust of wind.

Their hood fell back.

It was…

Him.

* * *

Robin bolted awake. Sun streamed in through the window. His clothes, the mattress underneath him, were drenched in sweat. He tried to hold onto the memory of the dream, but all that would stick was the image of a hand reaching at him… He shook his head. Best not to dwell on it, he thought.

"About time you got up," Arcana said, sitting by the fireplace and idly doodling in her notebook. "It was looking like you'd sleep forever."

"Ah… sorry." Robin yawned, then gave a tight hug to Starlight, who'd nudged him on the chest meaningfully. "Good morning, Starlight. Did you sleep well?"

Starlight chirped and bobbed in place, which Robin had long since learned meant that she was smiling. "Yes! I went outside and watched the stars from the roof. It was very relaxing!"

Robin stroked her shell. "Good. Hey, um, Arcana, where's the healer? Uh, uh…"

"Sabri?"

"Yeah. Sabri, that's his name."

Arcana glanced out the window. "He and Peach took off earlier. Gathering berries, he said. Apparently, they make potions with them."

"That makes sense for a healer, right?"

"I guess so. Look, I'm not much interested in waiting for him anyway." Arcana stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "Time to hit the road."

Robin's eyes widened. "What, already? Don't we need to talk to him about… everything?"

"Nope." Arcana shook her head. "I know what to do from here. Track down the Marowak lady, get information about the guy who did all this, and… well. Let's just say I plan to make sure he can't ever do what he did to anyone ever again."

"Wait, but… hold on a second." Once again, Arcana's rapid-fire delivery washed over Robin and took a moment to sink in. "We can't… hurt him or anything. We need him to fix this. To bring everyone back."

Arcana stared at him, her amber eyes drilling right through him, her gaze calculating. "You really don't get it, do you, Robin?" she asked, her voice low and steady. "They're all gone. All of them. Your mom, my sister, the entire town. They evaporated into _light_, Robin. Nobody comes back from that. No matter how much either of us wants them to."

"Wh-what are you saying, Arcana?"

Her voice rose in volume. "I think it's pretty clear what I'm saying, Robin! If what Sabri said is all true, then this is bigger than us! Bigger than our families! This guy could kill _everyone_! And right now the only one who can stop him is me!"

"But…" Robin tripped on his tongue. "But I can help stop him too! I don't want him to—"

"_No_, Robin. You can't. It's clear to me already." It was the most intense glare Arcana'd ever given him – her eyes were almost glowing. "If you tagged along, then as soon as I had him cornered, you'd try to pry information out of him, or make him promise to undo what he's done, or something pointless like that. The only thing that matters now is stopping him by any means necessary, do you understand me?"

Robin took in a slow breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth, just as his mother had always taught him to. "I… I do understand, Arcana. I understand perfectly. What you want to do… would ruin any chance I ever have of seeing everyone again. Of seeing her again."

"I told you." Arcana grimaced. "That hope is dead and buried."

"No. It never will be. And if you can't see that…" Robin swallowed, a knot forming in his throat and tears burning in the corners of his eyes. "Then I'll stop you, right now."

His challenge visibly floored Arcana, and it took her a moment to be able to put words together again. "Are you serious?" she asked, before turning to Opal. "For real, is he serious? Have I lost the ability to understand jokes? He knows we'd wipe the floor with him, right?"

Opal shrugged.

"It's not about whether I win," Robin said. "But I have to at least try, right?" Starlight made a shimmering noise beside him, and he knew he was making the right call.

Arcana threw her hands up. "Fine. Fine! I warned you, after all. Even tried to give you the common decency of waiting for you to wake up before I took off. Whatever. Let's at least go outside, though. That way we won't trash the place."

Behind the sanctum was a field that had the look of a space where someone had once wanted a garden but had never done anything past turning up the dirt. Robin and Starlight stood to one side, Arcana and Opal to the other.

"Let's make this quick, Opal," Arcana said, adjusting one of her gloves. "Water Gun. Get it done." Opal nodded and squeaked, waddling forward. She reared back and let loose a torrent of water, even stronger than the one she'd set against Sorrow. Starlight bobbed and tried to spin out of the way, but Opal had accounted for that and the spray landed squarely in her face.

Robin gave Starlight a warm smile as she looked back to him. "That's okay. Remember the idea you had a few days ago? Give it a shot."

Starlight nodded, her shell splintering. "I'll do my best!"

Arcana snapped her fingers. "We've already seen you do that once! Get ready, Opal! Here it comes!"

But instead of Starlight's shell blasting apart, this time the pieces just fell to the ground. Behind them, though, Starlight's eyes glowed a brilliant gleaming white, one that radiated outwards until nobody could see—

And then it was gone, leaving only a grinning Starlight and a dazed Opal.

"Tch! Hiding a Confuse Ray behind her shield…" Arcana grit her teeth. "That doesn't matter! Opal, keep up the tempo!" Opal stumbled forward, but only succeeded in falling flat on her face. "Opal, come on!"

"Starlight, use…" Robin said, then stopped himself. "No, I trust you. Do what you think is best, and let's end this!"

"Okay!" Starlight trilled. She hovered in place and spun on her axis, faster and faster – then dropped to the ground, flying forward like a wheel. She plowed into Opal and kept going, making a wide turn back towards her prone foe. Opal tried to get her flippers under her, but she only stumbled again – just for Starlight to mow her down another time.

Arcana let out an almost bestial growl. "Opal! Opal, are you okay? Come on, don't let them get the better of you!" Opal gave a wobbly salute, but Starlight crashed into her one final time, throwing her into the air. She landed and came to a rest right at Arcana's feet.

Starlight slowed to a stop and began reconstructing her shell from the shards she'd left on the battlefield. Robin knelt next to her and stroked her head. "Great job," he said quietly, so just she could hear. "I didn't think we'd actually pull that off."

"I don't believe this!" Arcana fumed. "You just got lucky!"

Robin stood. "Yeah, I guess I did. But… I still won, right? So… so that means you either have to let me come with you, or—"

"Funny." Arcana crouched and picked up Opal, cradling her in one arm. "I don't remember agreeing to that. And even after beating me, if you can't keep me from leaving… well. That says it all, really." She slowly walked for the footpath on the other side of the sanctum, almost daring him to stop her. "Goodbye, Robin."

Even though she couldn't see him anymore, Robin waved.


	3. Different Lives

"You okay back there, kid?"

Robin didn't look up from the thick book in his lap until Starlight nudged his shoulder. "Huh? Sorry?" he asked, then the words actually filtered into his head. "Oh. Yes. I'm okay, thank you." The two of them were surrounded by tidy stacks of crates, with only a thin cushion of hay providing any comfort. The cart they were in trundled slowly down the path, the Mudsdale pulling it trotting at a laconic pace, its hooves drumming a rhythmic pattern against the stone.

"Good. Lemme know if you need anything, you hear? Sabri told me to treat you right, so if you get hungry or something, I got some 'food' in the back there."

"I'll let you know." The crate next to him bore the label 'FOOD', quotation marks included, which didn't fill Robin with confidence. He was pretty sure it had started growling, too. "Um…"

"Oh, don't mind that. The jerky can sense fear. Just smack the crate a few times and it'll shut up."

Robin adamantly did not smack the crate, and instead just scooted away from it.

"Anyway, we still got a ways to go," said the horseman, a middle-aged man whose hair, with its copious amounts of grease, should have been on the head of someone much younger. He was smaller than Robin, and, when standing, gave the impression that he'd once been average height before a Snorlax sat on him. His name was Kuzman Dragov, and Robin still wasn't entirely clear how he and Sabri knew each other, but Sabri had called in a favor to let Robin hitch a ride to the closest town, where he figured the woman in white and Arcana both were probably headed. "Make yourself comfortable," Dragov continued, taking a bite of a piece of jerky that was, mercifully, not moving, "and make sure to keep that sunhat on. It's a long path over the lake, and even this time of year, the sun can burn if you're not careful."

Robin tugged the borrowed hat low over his eyes as Starlight lurked in the shade provided by the crates. The book he held, _The Collected Journals of Quintina Syre_, he'd found inside Dragov's satchel, alongside a handful of gold coins that he'd pocketed without a second thought. _The Collected Journals_ was thicker than any book Robin had ever seen before, and it had contained within its pages information on, well, almost everything. According to the forward, the author had spent her entire life traveling and writing things down; upon her death, her family compiled all of her essays and published them 'for the greater good', though a hefty amount of money had also exchanged hands.

The first article that Robin had looked up was 'Divine Favors'. "'A Divine Favor, note the capitalization, is a temporary boon granted to a mortal by one of the many deities that watch over the world of Ennen,'" he read under his breath. "'Whether or not this is a good thing depends entirely on the deity in question.'" Robin turned the page over, then flipped back. "That's it? That doesn't tell me anything more than Sabri did…"

"Is it really that weird to think that there's not much information available on mystical stuff like that?" Starlight chirped. She wasn't floating, choosing instead to rest in the cart; direct sunlight could be tricky for her in high doses, since her shell, not to put too fine a point on it, could act like an oven sometimes. "How common do you think the deities dropping some power on someone really is?"

"It's just…" The words weren't coming together in Robin's head right, but he and Starlight had been together long enough that she could read his gesticulations.

"I know," Starlight said, "it must be frustrating. But we'll learn more about it soon, I'm certain of it! Imagine if one of the deities really did give you a gift… I wonder which one? I hope it was Asanema of the Awakening...!"

"Are you sure you're not just saying that since she's the goddess of the night sky?" Robin asked with a gentle smile. He flipped to the section on prophecies, but once again Syre had nothing more to say than what Robin had already gleaned from Sabri. Shaking his head, he opened the book's centerfold – a world map the size of three full pages. He'd never seen a map like it before – only maps of Erdric, the region Penth was in – and he had to scan it for several minutes before he saw anything that looked remotely familiar.

Robin traced his finger along a line between two towns in the northeastern corner of the map. "Started in Penth," he muttered, "and headed to Sedre." The route passed over Lake Resolution, the hole in the center of the donut that was Erdric. Robin turned his head up and watched as the scenery of the lake passed him by: a glittering span of cerulean water bounded by expanses of red and gold trees. The bridge that connected the two sides of the lake was known formally as the Bridge of the Resolute and informally as 'that bridge, you know, the big one'. Erdric was a small region, with only five towns making it up, but even then Robin had never before passed beyond the bridge to the town that rested at its terminus.

There had been plans, of course.

After Robin's father had passed, Dulce had always said that when they saved up enough money, they'd move away from Penth to Sedre. Too many memories, too many people who knew their faces. Better, Dulce said, for them to disappear to another town, where they could start fresh and build different lives.

Of course, it never happened. They only ever made enough money to eke out a living, never enough for saving.

"We don't need gold, though, do we?" Dulce said, her voice whispering into Robin's ears.

His head snapped up. The sun was lower in the sky, and the bridge had passed behind them.

"I said, look, Binny!" Starlight said, spinning around him. "You can see Sedre up ahead! You napped almost the whole way there!"

Robin twisted around in place and squinted, looking past Kuzman Dragov and his enormous mount. Stone ramparts rose ahead of them, an imposing silhouette that looked out of place against the idyllic forest.

Quintina Syre had more to say on the topic of Sedre than on either of the subjects Robin had looked up earlier. "Erdric, on the whole, has never been much of a player on the world stage," she wrote, "largely due to its small size and unassuming populace. Nevertheless, this loose coalition of self-governed towns at one point had a standing military, as evidenced by the town of Sedre, built inside what used to be the Fort of the Resolute. Residents of Sedre like to say that they're some of the safest citizens in the world, but that's mostly because nobody really pays Erdric a second glance."

The fort's gate was already lowered as they approached, and Dragov gave the two guards a friendly wave. The road was evidently well-used, with humans and Pokemon alike passing them by in both directions. "Evening, Dragov," said the taller of the guards. "Setting up shop here again?"

"You know me, boys," Dragov replied, taking a theatrical bow that almost had him falling off of his seat. "Can't stay in one place too long. Got lots of premiere 'food' to sell this time, though, and just wait until you get a load of my 'ale'!"

And that was that. Nobody asked about Dragov's two passengers. "Do they not care that I'm coming in with you?" Robin asked.

Dragov shrugged. "This place looks real locked up, kid, but it's all for show. Lotsa people go in and outta here, all hours of the day. I mean, they got some small farms inside the walls, but not enough to keep this place fed, so they got food coming in from Port Yarcia and Penth all the time." He pursed his lips. "Hey, about that. I took my same route up to a farm near Penth that I always do, and I musta got turned around or something because I didn't ever hit Penth. Like the entire place was gone. Did the path there get messed up?"

Robin didn't meet his eyes. "…Something like that, I guess."

"Whatever." Dragov slowed the Mudsdale to a stop, climbed down, and fed it a carrot from his satchel. "Sabri was real cagey about it too. Something about not wanting to cause a panic, not that I know what he meant by it." He slung his satchel over his shoulder, stumbling as if he'd been expecting it to be heavier. "Where did… oh, you've got my book, kid. Eh, you know what, keep it. I've read it back to front already."

Robin set the borrowed hat on one of the crates and carefully lowered himself from the cart, hay clinging to his tunic. "Thank you, sir." He stepped back, placing a protective arm in front of Starlight, as another cart, this one drawn one-clawed by a Kingler, passed by them. They stood in the heart of… well, it was a market, but Robin hesitated to compare it to the one in Penth – even if the one back home doubled in size, it still would be beat.

"Can't say I know what business you have here," Dragov said, reaching a hand up to slap Robin on the upper arm, "but if you run into trouble, just come on back to your old pal Dragov. My consultation rates are reasonable." He shook Robin's hand with a grip that would have cowed a Machamp, then led the Mudsdale to an empty stall and began unloading crates.

Letting out a slow breath, Robin tapped one boot against the ground, and then the other. The road was cobblestone, but smoother than the cobblestones back home. The air carried a rich mix of aromas: fresh fruit, smoke, Pokemon, humans… The walls of the fort ran behind him off into the distance and looped back around far ahead, further up the rolling foothills of the mountains that imposed upon the sky. Most of the buildings he could see were cob, but the ones near the tops of the hills graduated into stone, culminating in a massive structure at the far end of the fort that loomed over the rest of the town.

"Well, Binny?" Starlight chirped, hovering at his side. "Where do we start?"

Robin fidgeted with the gold coins in his pocket and watched the sun cast long shadows across the town. "I want to see if I can find something real quick…"

Starlight floated above Robin's head and looked out over the marketplace. "Okay, but then we should find the inn, don't you think? It's getting late."

* * *

The inn nearest to the town's eastern entrance was the Mindful Mareep, run by a young woman who called herself Ms. Mabelle. Robin had, when he was at home, thought he had a pretty good idea of what an innkeeper looked like. Both inns in Penth were run by unrelated old men with leathery skin and permanent squints who nevertheless had hearts of gold once you got to know them. When one of them had passed on, a different old man, who nevertheless still had leathery skin and the squint, took over. Robin wasn't sure where they all came from.

It had quickly become apparent to Robin that this was not the case in Sedre.

Ms. Mabelle was tall, broad of shoulder, and always stood up stock-straight; she wore a tunic with no sleeves so that she could, at least as far as Robin could tell, show off her prodigious amounts of tattoos.

Robin had to admit that it was a nice change of pace. If nothing else, Ms. Mabelle made a mean omelet.

The next morning found Robin and Starlight well-fed and well-rested with none of Dragov's money remaining. After the purchase he'd made in the market – a satchel too big for him to swipe – the night at the inn wiped him out. The satchel was necessary for Dragov's copy of the _Collected Journals_, which had started giving Robin an ache in his arm after carrying it for only an hour. He'd also found a small linen ribbon, dyed indigo blue, that he tied around one of Starlight's spikes.

"So the building at the top of the hill…" Robin tilted his head. "That's a church?"

Ms. Mabelle nodded, her hands a blur as she slid breakfast orders onto plates. "Sure as sure can be. That's the Church of Alpani, though if you got someone else you like to pray to they'll take you in all the same. The disciple who manages it, that's Indra Alba, she's good people. If you're looking for someone, she'll know where to get you started. Sorry I can't help you more. You and Mr. Dragov are the only visitors I've seen from Penth in the last couple of days."

"That's all right. Thank you for breakfast." Robin pushed his chair in and left the inn, squinting at the bright morning light.

The church in Penth, devoted to the deity Alagi of the Evolution, had been a modest affair. Though any denomination could pray within its wattle and daub walls, the lecturer on loan from the capital-C Church in Vezretti across the sea always tailored his sermons towards followers of Alagi. Robin and Dulce didn't attend services often, but the lecturer always had a kind word for them when he saw them in town, and he always palmed them a few coins before Dulce could steal them herself.

Sitting at the peak of the town, the church of Alpani of the Emotion was the antithesis. Its stone walls, shrunken versions of the walls surrounding Sedre, bore elaborate stained glass windows that sparkled in the sun, each one representing the goddess Alpani. On their own, the three buildings within the church walls took up the entirety of the hilltop and easily dwarfed the already ostentatious homes that led up to it. Above the doors was the sigil of the goddess – a vertical line crossed with two diagonal ones – and even that etching was Robin's size.

Robin looked up at the towering structure. It was almost a castle, and it was only one of three. "I don't like this, Starlight."

"What's the matter?" Starlight had floated up to a stained glass window, one showing what was purported to be the white-and-green horned face of Alpani, and was watching her reflection bob and weave. "I think this place is nice. So much stone!"

"It's…" The words wouldn't come out of his mouth, and he wrapped his arms around himself. "It's too big. It feels… cold." He shook his head. "Not _cold_, but…"

Starlight spun down to him and rubbed against his head. "I understand. Then maybe we should find Miss Indra quickly, so you can get out of here. Do you know what you need to ask her?"

"Yeah. If she's seen the woman in white… and where to find her."

"There you go." Starlight trilled happily. "We'll be in and out."

They were not in and out.

One acolyte had pointed them in the direction of Indra's living quarters, but neglected to tell them that they were in the wrong building. Another had insisted that Indra was leading a group study session at the moment, and that she was actually in the building Robin and Starlight had come from. A third swore up and down that Indra had gone into town to buy some groceries. The last one was certain that Indra wasn't even the person in charge of the church and that she was an impostor.

"You know, I'm not entirely certain that last man was actually an acolyte," Starlight said as they made their way down a torch-lit stone hall. "His vestments looked a little…"

"Like a green potato sack?" asked Robin.

Starlight giggled. "I was going to say 'thrown together', but I think your description works too. Oh! Eyes up, Binny! I think we're there!"

A wooden door ended the hallway, with a smaller wooden sign hung on it bearing the inscription 'Quarters of Indra Alba.' Robin took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" The voice that answered was wispy, like it might drift away in the wind.

Robin froze. He knew that voice.

The door creaked open, and…

"Ah… oh my. How… _delightful_ to see you, child."

A woman in white.


End file.
